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籀史

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Text ID
KR2n0016
Date
1142–1142
Dynasty
宋

Zhòushǐ 籀史

A History of [Antique-Script] Inscriptions

by 翟耆年 (Zhái Qínián, fl. 1142)

About the work

A single-juan critical bibliographical essay on Chinese epigraphic compilations and palaeographic monuments — Sòng-era jīnshí studies regarded as a coherent literature. Compiled around 1142 (Shàoxīng 12, second month) at the imperial command directed to Zhái Qínián. The original was in two juan (shàng 上 / xià 下), but the lower juan was lost long before the Sìkù era. The surviving shàng juan, transmitted via the early-Qing manuscript of Cáo Róng 曹溶 of Jiāxīng, comprises critical notices on a sequence of Sòng jīnshí and fǎtiè compilations: the Xuānhé bógǔ tú 宣和博古圖, Zhào Míngchéng’s Jīnshí lù KR2n0013 (which Zhái identifies as 15-juan and exclusively concerned with bronze inscriptions, not stone — distinguishing it from a later text), and others. After each entry Zhái appends his own discussion lùnshuō 論說 evaluating the work’s merits. The book is named Zhòushǐ — “history [of writings in] zhòu-[script]” — because most of its content concerns jīnshí (bronze and stone) inscriptions written in zhuànlì 篆隸 (seal-and-clerical) scripts; despite the title, it is not a specialised treatment of Zhòuwén 籀文 (the antique large-seal script attributed to the Zhōu zhòu official) per se.

Tiyao

Compiled by Zhái Qínián of the Sòng. Qínián, zì Bóshòu, was a son of the cānzhèng Zhái Rǔwén; his alternative hào was Huánghèshānrén 黃鶴山人. The book begins with the Xuānhé bógǔ tú and the imperial command of the second month of Shàoxīng 12 [1142] addressed to “your servant Qínián, etc.” — clearly a work of the early Southern Sòng.

It was originally in two juan, shàng and xià. With the passage of years it was scattered. Only Cáo Róng of Jiāxīng’s family had a manuscript, and even that only the shàng. Present holdings derive entirely from Cáo’s copy. Wáng Shìzhēn once recorded its title in his Jūyì lù 居易錄, hoping to track down the lower juan, but never obtained it. We know the work has not survived complete for some time.

The naming “Zhòu-history” arose because most of the contents concern jīnshí inscriptions in zhuànlì form — it is not strictly a specialist book on zhòu script. Each entry has appended discussion summarising the essentials. On the Qíyáng shígǔ 岐陽石鼓, Zhái does not firmly accept the Tang-era attribution to Shǐzhòu 史籀; this differs from Tang transmissions but is a defensible critical position — though he does not go so far as Jīn Mǎ Dìngguó 馬定國 in firmly assigning the stones to the Northern Zhōu of Yǔwén family.

What he records does not include Xuē Shànggōng’s 薛尚功 Zhōngdǐng yíqì kuǎnshí 鐘鼎彝器款識, with its full reproduction of the seal-character inscriptions; but Zhái’s discussion of the historical context of the items is more detailed than Xuē’s. The two books complement each other and neither should be one-sidedly preferred.

The notice within says: “Zhào Míngchéng’s Gǔ qìwù míngbēi 古器物銘碑 in fifteen juan: Shāng objects 3 juan, Zhōu objects 10 juan, QínHàn objects 2 juan, with preface by Liú Jì 劉跂 of Héjiān, zhuàn-script title by Wáng Shòuqīng 王壽卿 of Luòyáng.” From this account, the fifteen juan are entirely on bronze-vessel inscriptions, not on stone — therefore a separate book from the Jīnshí lù. Wáng Shìzhēn’s identification of the two as the same work is mistaken; perhaps Wáng had not, in passing, consulted the Jīnshí lù.

Abstract

The Zhòushǐ is the earliest surviving Sòng critical-bibliographical essay on the jīnshí and fǎtiè genres themselves. The catalog meta dates “13th cent.” imprecisely; the imperial-command opening date is fixed at Shàoxīng 12, second month (1142, rénxū), which is set as both notBefore and notAfter here. Zhái’s father Zhái Rǔwén died in 1141, so the work follows immediately on his father’s death.

The work’s significance lies in three areas:

  1. Documentary record of lost Sòng jīnshí compilations. Several of the books Zhái discusses are now lost — most importantly Zhào Míngchéng’s Gǔ qìwù míngbēi 古器物銘碑 in 15 juan, which Zhái distinguishes from the Jīnshí lù KR2n0013. This is a separate Zhào Míngchéng work otherwise nowhere attested; the Sìkù editors validate this distinction against Wáng Shìzhēn’s misidentification.
  2. Palaeographic critical position. Zhái’s reservation about the Tang-era attribution of the Qíyáng shígǔ 岐陽石鼓 (the Stone Drums) to Shǐzhòu — without going so far as Mǎ Dìngguó’s Northern-Zhou attribution — is one of the earliest evidentialist positions on this famous palaeographic monument. The Stone Drums attribution debate continues into the Qing and modern scholarship.
  3. Companion to Xuē’s Zhōngdǐng yíqì kuǎnshí. The Sìkù editors recommend reading the Zhòushǐ alongside Xuē Shànggōng’s Zhōngdǐng yíqì kuǎnshí (in zhuànshū fully reproduced) — Xuē providing the visual evidence, Zhái the historical context.

The transmission is troubled: only the shàng juan survived; Cáo Róng (1613–1685, ed. LíngWǔ 學海) preserved the unique manuscript, and all subsequent witnesses derive from his copy. Wáng Shìzhēn (1634–1711) records his unsuccessful effort to recover the xià juan in Jūyì lù. The surviving juan is one of the smaller monographs in the Sòng jīnshí corpus but is highly cited.

Translations and research

No English translation. Studies:

  • Lǐ Yuàn 李遠, “翟耆年《籀史》考” — modern Chinese article on the work and its testimony.
  • Wú Hóngzé 吳洪澤, on Zhái Rǔwén / Zhái Qínián family scholarship.
  • Patricia Ebrey, Accumulating Culture: The Collections of Emperor Huizong (Washington UP, 2008), on Sòng jīnshí connoisseurship.
  • Robert E. Harrist Jr., The Landscape of Words (Washington UP, 2008), on Sòng inscription studies.

Other points of interest

Zhái’s testimony that Zhào Míngchéng compiled a separate Gǔ qìwù míngbēi in 15 juan — distinct from the Jīnshí lù — is one of the most-cited Sòng-era pieces of bibliographical evidence for Zhào’s full output. Modern scholarship on Zhào and Lǐ Qīngzhào often cites this passage. The xià juan’s loss is a long-standing regret of Sòng jīnshí scholarship; the missing portion would have continued the critical bibliography into stone-inscription compilations.

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